In addition to the dispensing of money, Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) may also provide a deposit service to allow customers to deposit checks, notes or other items of sheet media into the machine for credit to their account, or for other purposes. In order to provide this service an ATM must have a system to accept and process the items of sheet media. As well as the storage of deposited items, an ATM may also provide services that require the return of the items to the customer.
A simple system for accepting items of sheet media is a single feed device, which accepts a single item at a time for processing. The customer must feed each item of sheet media to be deposited into the ATM one by one. A disadvantage of this system is that the deposit of more than a few items takes a substantial amount of time, and the customer is also required to manually select and insert each item to be deposited in turn.
In order to increase the speed of deposit of a number of items of sheet media, a system may be provided that allows a user to insert a number of items of media at a time. Such systems are known as bunch media processing systems. The items of media may be either stored or returned to the customer in a single bunch. This significantly improves the customer's experience as they are not required to separate and feed each item individually into the machine, thereby greatly reducing the processing time.
In order to facilitate the processing of bunches of media, escrow and re-presenter devices are provided in the processing system. An escrow device temporarily stores items of media such that all items in a bunch can be accepted into the processing system before it is decided where those items will be routed to. Re-presenter devices allow the recombination of single items of media into a stack of items, such that a bunch of items of media can be conveniently returned to a customer in one stack.
A disadvantage of bunch media processing systems is that because the devices are more complicated to allow the handling of bunches of items, they are more prone to malfunction and jamming. When conventional bunch media processing systems malfunction, the ATM is rendered unable to accept the deposit of any items and thus the functionality of that ATM is severely curtailed until a technician can visit the ATM to clear the jam or repair it.
There is therefore a requirement for a media processing system which addresses the above-mentioned problem.